First of let me remind you that PRICE has been under attack by the media ever since the Red Sox signed him to that ridiculous "kazillion dollar"deal. He's fought back, as is most people's nature......
Secondly let me remind you that Eckesley is NOW a media person, no longer a player......
He is, however, a Hall of Famer and is accorded mucho respect by the media.....{read bias} All reporting is slanted to not cast Eck in a bad light.......
Next.....Some former players that DO know the type of person he is have never been contacted by the media for input into this story......One is Rico Petrocelli......Several years ago, when Rico was doing a sports talk show he had Dick Radatz as a guest.......The topic was "Since pitchers have their own award, Fireman of the Year," should they also be in the voting for MVP....." RADATZ, one of the greatest relief pitchers in history said they should not simply because they were in a different category and already had THEIR top award.......ECKERSLY called in from his car phone and immediately started call Radatz nasty names......One slur was, "What does a FAT, over the hill washed up player know." etc.......Now Radatz is the nicest, gentlest guy in the world and did not engage in any argument with Eck, saying only that he {Radatz} was only voicing HIS opinion and in no way was he minimizing Eck's great career.......
BUT, Rico, who always knew that Eckersley was a bully and would always go after people he knew would not, or could not fight back......calmly said to Eck, come on and drive over to our studio and we can talk this out in person......Well, Eckersley was no fool and he knew that Rico would have slugged him for attacking Radatz, knowing full well the gentle giant would not fight back.......
BUT Rico WOULD make Eckersley pay for the attack on his friend and Eck knew it.....
POINT IS------Eckersley is a well known bully when he knows he can get away with it.......He is well known for not being a good clubhouse guy and teammate.......THAT is why he's been traded so many times in his career.....If not for his luck in being made a reliever in Oakland then putting up great Hall of Fame numbers......we wouldn't even be remembering him now......
NOW for the Price/Eckersley incident.......PRICE saw Eckersley attacking a younger player, who was intimidated by this Hall of Fame player, constantly and, finally, Price sounded of on Eck......THIS was the whole thing......The MEDIA did all the rest......Price was even asked to apologize to Eck.......
I don't think Price was so inclined and said so.......Whatever the windup was it was short and could have been even shorter......except for the media.......I'm reminded here that a famous sportswriter of the thirties once said....."Never let the truth get in the way of a good story....."
At any rate, in MY OPINION, what Price did makes him a good teammate and what Eckersley did would get him barred from any lockerroom I've ever been in.....
NOW, if we can get the MEDIA to start writing stories in a factual manner instead of being biased to one side or the other.......Hopefully this will lead to shedding more light on things that have just happened with the Celtics.....Let me say this......The fans have NOT been getting the real scoops about what's taken place in a number of different cases........In my next story I'll try to correct that.......
Maybe even show you how the Patriots are a better team THIS year.....Stay tuned........